As very modest compensation for their grueling training and dedicated lifestyles, sumo wrestlers enjoy a bit of a revered status in Japan, and along with that comes a certain level of celebrity that means getting asked for your autograph a lot. However, sumo wrestlers don't simply hand out signatures. They treat fans to tegata, or hand prints that both serve as an autograph and proud proof of the giant hands sumo use to batter their opponents.

But when you have thousands of clamoring fans to please, you need to be as diligent in stamping as you are in an actual contest. A video below, posted by the Japan Sumo Association, shows popular sumo Takayasu Akira, a striking and thrusting specialist, blowing through a set of hand print autographs that is oddly satisfying to watch!

Assistants can sometimes barely keep up with the speedy sumo hand print autographs, and Yokozuna-ranked Hakuho Sho is now slouch in speedily creating autographs that most of us could fit our face in.

1,500 stamps in one go, outside in the heat and humidity? All in a day's work!


By - Big Neko.